This meal is a regular favorite at our house. After all, wrap something in puff pastry, and you really can't go wrong!
Start with grilled chicken. Zuppardo's sells "chicken tenders," which are breast halves sliced up. It's great for cheating when you don't feel like cutting down the pieces yourself. These were grilled with some creole seasoning and thyme, but you can see the potential for variation here.
Pepperidge Farms puff pastry sheets. They do just fine. They come frozen, two to a box. I'll buy two boxes worth, and that'll make some leftovers. The finished/baked pastries freeze well, so that's another reason this dish is popular at home-they can pull them out and eat them when I'm traveling.
Lay out the sheets, place a 1 1/2 or 2 pieces of the chicken in a corner of the pastry. Cut a matching size piece for the top.
This is another point where variations are endless. Add some chili paste on top of the chicken, or foie gras. Maybe some veggies. Go Japanese with teriyaki. You get the idea. I drizzled some of the sauce (below) inside, then covered the chicken with the top piece, pressing the ends to make a sealed pastry. Brush the completed pastries with a beaten egg and bake in a 350F oven until brown.
Sauce. I grilled most of the chicken, but fried a couple of pieces in the pan, deglazed with white wine, and used that as a base for the sauce. Let the wine reduce for a minute, then add half-and-half or heavy cream, stirring to blend. Then some creole seasoning and lemon pepper, and a bit of thyme. Mushroom slices to complete the sauce.
Voila! Top the baked pastries with the sauce and mushrooms, serve with a nice side, and you've got a fun, quick chicken dish!
